Multiple-target localization and estimation of MIMO radars with unknown transmitted signals

We consider a statistical multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar system in which the transmit antennas are sparsely spaced to achieve spatial diversity while the receive antennas are closely spaced for direction finding. We consider the scenario where the transmitted signals are unknown. A two-step procedure is introduced to accomplish the localization of multiple targets and the estimation of both the fading matrix and the transmitted signals. In the first step, the angles are estimated using the approximate maximum likelihood algorithm. In the second step, the fading matrix and the transmitted signals are estimated using the blind signal processing techniques. The performance of the proposed procedure is validated by the simulation results.